Ziggy Stardust
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Sound
No Bowie fanzine would be worthy of its bytes unless it had a tribute to the song that really kicked Bowie into hight gear. Although other songs that will be saluted here sold more, Ziggy was what set the stage for all the rest to make it. It put Bowie on the level of the various members of the Beatles, the Stones, Elton John, and the other great writers of the 70’s. From this point forward Bowie could pretty much do whatever he wanted musically. Ziggy shattered the bubblegum mystique that big stars had to be pretty, wholesome, sing well, or write songs about important issues. Ziggy was none of that. An ashen skinny kid with orange hair and dressing in curtains singing about questionable sexually oriented aliens and the end of the Earth. Yeah buddy, that’s gonna sell. Oh, and did we mention we’re gonna do mime during the show as well? If that don’t get it, we simulate homosexual felacio on guitars.
Well, to the surprise of everyone except probably Bowie, it did sell. All of a sudden, everyone was going over the top, the punks were accepted, Elton John came out of the closet, Bowie taunted John, Right when it was pretty much accepted that Bowie could do glam and hard rock forever, he ditched it for soul. Ziggy sold the world, and Bowie then set out to sell it again.
And possibly the second best remake, outside of my own, Bauhaus’s version:
Tags: david bowie, Sound, Ziggy-Stardust
